Re: Snooze/lose (Was: Academics and coursepacks)

From: Bert Boyce <lsboyc[_at_]lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 09:33:30 -0500

On 8/28/98, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> Most universities have cut their libraries' share of the budget, as
> reports from the Mellon Foundation and the National Center for Education
> Statistics (and others) have pointed out. LSU has made it a priority.
> Here is LSU's total materials expenditure as reported via the
> Association of Research Libraries over the last 15 years -- a period
> when the number of journal articles tracked by major databases doubled
> worldwide:
>
> YEAR Spending (millions)
> 1981 $2.5
> 1982 3.0
> 1983 3.3
> 1984 2.9
> 1985 3.1
> 1986 3.4
> 1987 3.5
> 1988 3.4
> 1989 3.3
> 1990 3.3
> 1991 3.3
> 1992 4.8
> 1993 3.2
> 1994 3.0
> 1995 3.1
> 1996 3.4
>
> I think blaming the "skyrocketing cost of the academic journal"
> is misleading. THE STATUS OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED
> STATES (NCES 97-413 June 1997)cites an ACRL study suggesting
> that academic libraries should receive about 6 percent of their
> university's total budget. That standard has never been achieved.
> The national average is 3.8% in 1992. Research Universities
> average 2.6 (public)to 2.8 (private).
>
> In 1968, Jacques Barzun wrote in THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY that
> universities like Columbia allocated 6 percent to their library.
> In CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Columbia professor James
> Shapiro wrote recently that most faculty never set foot in
> the library any more (LXV,16:B4-5, Dec 12, 1997)
>
> If photocopying had nothing to do with the decimation of
> library collections like Columbia and LSU, I'll eat my hat.

"Data from the Library Journal suggest a more than eleven-fold increase in the price of scientific and technical journals between 1970 and 1990, which is equivalent to an average price increase of 13.5 percent per year" quoted from

   http://www.lib.virginia.edu/mellon/ch6.html

   University Libraries and Scholarly Communication

   A Study Prepared for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

   by Anthony M. Cummings, Marcia L. Witte, William G. Bowen, Laura O.      Lazarus, and Richard H. Ekman

   Published by The Association of Research Libraries for The Andrew W.    Mellon Foundation November 1992,

a publication I recommend to anyone who wants to know about University Library costs.

Mr. Henderson's figures show LSU's materials budget as essentially flat during the period while journal costs increase 11 fold. I don't know if that is a sky rocket or fast elevator but it can sure take your breath away. I certainly don't want to be on the side of reduced library budgets, but it is journal cost and fixed budgets, not copying that is hurting book sales to academic libraries.

                                     BRB

Bert R. Boyce, Professor & Dean
School of Library & Information Science
Louisiana State University
267 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

     (504)388-3158
FAX: (504)388-4581
LSBOYC[_at_]LSUVM.sncc.lsu.edu Received on Mon Aug 31 1998 - 14:34:36 GMT